We investigated the ability of honeybees to learn mazes of four types: cons
tant-turn mazes, in which the appropriate turn is always in the same direct
ion in each decision chamber; zig-zag mazes, in which the appropriate turn
is alternately left and right in successive decision chambers; irregular ma
zes, in which there is no readily apparent pattern to the turns; and variab
le irregular mazes, in which the bees were trained to learn several irregul
ar mazes simultaneously. The bees were able to learn to navigate all four t
ypes of maze. Performance was best in the constant-turn mazes, somewhat poo
rer in the zig-zag mazes, poorer still in the irregular mazes, and poorest
in the variable irregular mazes. These results demonstrate that bees do not
navigate such mazes simply by memorizing the entire sequence of appropriat
e turns. Rather, performance in the various configurations depends on the e
xistence of regularity in the structure of the maze and on the ease with wh
ich this regularity is recognized and learned.